Town Talk

In 20-plus years of reporting in Douglas County, one thing I have learned about the public is they are very concerned about any threats to their cabbage-stuffed sandwiches. Over the last few days I started getting messages from people concerned that the Runza at 27th and Iowa streets — perhaps ...

On a day so cold that my wife actually has consented to turn the thermostat up to 59 degrees and will allow me to shear an extra sheep for the kids, I do know of one place that is hot. South Iowa Street continues to be the hot spot for ...

You won’t have to wait much longer to check out Lawrence’s newest hotel and major downtown development. The owner of the new Marriott TownPlace Suites at Ninth and New Hampshire streets has told me that the hotel will open sometime between Jan. 14 and Jan. 21. “We’re very excited,” said ...

Here’s a little bit of Lawrence bar trivia you can use to perhaps win a few bucks while sitting on a bar stool: What is the largest drinking establishment in Lawrence? The Cave? Nope. Abe & Jake’s? Nope. It’s not the Granada, the Hawk or the Bottleneck either. The answer ...

I suspect that as this new year begins, many of us are on a bread-and-water diet. Perhaps it is part of a New Year’s resolution, or maybe it is just more a necessity after realizing that — despite it being 98 percent off — buying $15,000 of "Frozen"-themed wrapping paper ...

There still may be a shack in my future. After all, these are the days when the mailman has to use a pack mule just to get the credit card statements to my front door. But one shack that is not in any of our futures is the RadioShack store ...

We’re not yet Milwaukee — and why would we ever want to be St. Louis with that baseball team that didn’t even make the World Series this year? — but Lawrence is becoming quite a brewery town. The Lawrence-based restaurant Henry T’s has confirmed it has bought an eastern Lawrence ...

The shopping season got started early for some. The latest retail report shows that from mid-September to mid-October Lawrence consumers increased their spending nearly 13 percent from the same time period a year ago. At least that is one explanation for the large increase, although it doesn’t explain why approximately ...

With this being Lawrence, we obviously all have special wings of our homes to house our collections of Jayhawk apparel, but soon we’ll no longer have one longtime Jayhawk retailer to help us fill those aircraft hangar-like rooms. The owners of Jayhawk Spirit, 935 Massachusetts St., have announced they have ...

It almost should go without saying that Lawrence is the top college community in the region. Just walk through the Oread neighborhood on any Friday and Saturday night and partake in the abundant school spirit. Lawrence is at least the top college town in Kansas. Well, a new ranking says ...

UPDATE 1:30 p.m.: Maybe there will be bubbles on this 1,000-foot water slide, because the idea of hosting The Urban Slide in a west Lawrence neighborhood quickly is turning into a soap opera. Ryan Robinson, owner of Lawrence-based Silverback Productions, reached out to me today and said he’s now decided ...

They say the best way to make it rain is to wash your car. Given that we already have had a lot of rain, I’m a bit worried about what will happen when a Lawrence businessman starts construction on what he’s calling one of the more advanced car washes in ...

Plans for a proposed multimillion dollar senior living complex in West Lawrence are becoming clearer. The developer of the property has confirmed it has entered into a contract for an approximately four-acre site near Sixth and Queens Road. We reported earlier this week that a Minnesota-based development firm was planning ...

In 2008, it seemed the public transit question in Lawrence was settled. Lawrence residents loved the idea of a city-owned bus system. Voters went to the polls in November of that year with a do-or-die question. Voters were asked to approve a two-tenths of a percent sales tax to fund ...

Chicken is on my mind. Buffalo wing sauce is on my tie. Crumbs of crispy, deep-fried breading may or may not be on the stubble of my beard. And all of this is before city leaders wisely rename south Iowa Street Deep Fried Drive to honor the chicken wars that ...

You bet I’ve got a chop house on my mind, and it is not just because I’ve already spent a good part of my week “helping” my 4-H kids wrangle their hogs at the Douglas County Fair. I’ve got news of a large expansion of a west Lawrence restaurant that ...

If you are looking to buy a home in Lawrence, you had better lace up those running shoes. Home sale statistics for the first half of 2015 show that buyers need to be ready to move to keep up with what is becoming a tight home market. For the first ...

A multimillion-dollar police headquarters project may be the big issue on the minds of City Hall leaders, but city residents still are far more fixated on a slightly smaller issue: fixing that pothole. A recent city survey found fixing the streets is still the top-of-mind issue for Lawrence residents, outpacing ...

A company that is installing super fast broadband service in Baldwin City today, says it likely will begin offering the service in Lawrence in early 2016. Baldwin City-based RG Fiber is close to signing a lease agreement with the city of Lawrence that will give the company access to a ...

It looks like Lawrence really is going to get another golf course. I’ve been reporting for years that an Arkansas-based company has filed plans to build a new nine-hole course in northwest Lawrence that will be surrounded by apartments. But now there are actual bulldozers and other equipment clearing the ...